Romanian tech group Life Is Hard to take over e-commerce software developer

Life Is Hard (LIH), a Romanian technology company listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange's AeRO market, plans to take over Innobyte, a local software developer specialized in e-commerce solutions.

The company has already started the due diligence phase, and Life Is Hard summoned its shareholders to approve the deal.

Innobyte's shareholders will get LIH shares as part of the deal, and its managers will remain involved in developing the e-commerce business.

The transaction's terms will be defined during the due diligence period by Innobyte's shareholders of Innobyte and the Life Is Hard's Board of Directors, led by the local entrepreneur Catalin Chis, who also owns the majority stake (62.8%) in the company.

With this takeover, Life Is Hard will add new competencies to its portfolio, which currently includes technology solutions for local SMEs.

Founded in 2006 by local entrepreneur Catalin Somfalean, Innobyte had a turnover of EUR 1.8 mln in 2020.

Life Is Hard, which also offers solutions for smart cities and owns the biggest online insurance brokerage platform (24broker) on the local market, announced two other takeovers last year, adding to its portfolio the operations of Active Power Solutions, the biggest B2B telecom dealer, and Treecomm, a distributor of telecom solutions for companies.

"As we announced in 2020, Life Is Hard | Work Soft has started an active process of consolidating its growth foundation for the coming years to become a partner with major relevance in the area of ​​digitalization for companies and communities in Romania. The complementarity and the common vision of growth that we have with Innobyte are the basis of the discussions we have and are important premises to continue the development of our companies in a common formula," said Catalin Chis.

Listed on the AeRO market five years ago, Life Is Hard has reached a market capitalization of RON 28.5 mln (EUR 5.85 mln). The company's shares went up by almost 12% on January 19 after the deal was announced.

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